From Wikipedia,
the free encyclopedia
Kyriacos Costa Nicolaou
is an American
chemist. K. C. Nicolaou was
born on
July 5,
1946, in Karavas,Cyprus
where he grew up and went to
school until the age of 18. In
1964, he went to England where
he spent two years learning
English and preparing to enter the
University. He studied chemistry
at the
University of London. (B.Sc.,
1969,
Bedford College;
Ph.D.
1972,
University College, with
Professors F. Sondheimer and P.J.
Garratt) In 1972, he moved to the
United States and, after
postdoctoral appointments at
Columbia University
(1972-1973, Professor T.J. Katz)
and
Harvard University (1973-1976,
Professor
E.J. Corey), he joined the
faculty at the
University of Pennsylvania
where he became the
Rhodes-Thompson Professor of
Chemistry.
In
1989, he started at the
University of California,
San Diego, where he is
Professor of Chemistry, and The
Scripps Research Institute
where he is the Darlene Shiley
Professor of Chemistry, and
Chairman of the Department of
Chemistry. In 1996, he was
appointed Aline W. and L.S. Skaggs
Professor of Chemical Biology in
The Skaggs Institute for Chemical
Biology, The
Scripps Research Institute.
Nicolaou is active in the field
of
organic chemistry with
research interests natural product
synthesis and
total synthesis. He is
responsible for the synthesis of
many complex molecules found in
nature such as
Taxol in the
Taxol total synthesis and
vancomycin.
Awards
Among K. C. Nicolaou's Awards
and Honors are the Schering Prize
(Germany), the Aspirin Prize
(Spain), the Max Tishler Prize
Lecture (Harvard), the Yamada
Prize (Japan), the Janssen Prize
(Belgium), the Nagoya Medal
(Japan), the Centenary Medal
(Royal Society UK), the Paul
Karrer Medal (Switzerland), the
Inhoffen Medal (Germany), the
Nichols Medal (USA), the Linus
Pauling Medal (USA), the Esselen
Award (USA), the ACS Award for
Creative Work in Synthetic Organic
Chemistry (USA), the ACS Guenther
Award in Natural Products
Chemistry (USA), the Nobel
Laureate Signature Award,
Tetrahedron Prize Award, and
several honorary degrees. He is a
Fellow of the
American Academy of Arts and
Sciences and a Member of the
National Academy of Sciences.
